Benga

Ingredients

Base

• 300 gcowpeas or black-eyed peas, soaked overnight
• 400 grice, rinsed

Seasoning

• 2onions, chopped
• 4 clovesgarlic
• 2stock cubes
• 1 tspsalt
• black pepper

Oil dressing

• 100 mlred palm oil or groundnut oil
• 1onion, sliced
• 3 tbspground dried chilli
• 1 tspground ginger

Sometimes

• smoked fish
• a little tomato paste

To serve

• with a pepper sauce, with fried plantain, or with a stew

Directions

1. Soak them overnight in plenty of cold water. In warm weather soak them in the fridge, since soaking pulses ferment and sour quickly. Drain and rinse them before cooking. Cowpeas take far longer to cook than rice, which is why they cannot simply go in together at the start.
2. Boil the soaked cowpeas with onion, garlic and a stock cube for about forty minutes. Do not add salt at the start of cooking the beans. Salt added early is widely held to toughen the skins and slow the softening, so it goes in once they are nearly done. Test them by crushing one: it should be tender but still holding its shape.
3. Keep the bean cooking liquid rather than draining it away. The usual ratio is about one and a half times the volume of the rice. Stir the rinsed rice into the pot with the beans and their liquid. Season with salt now, and taste the liquid, which should be noticeably salty since the rice will absorb it.
4. Bring it back to a boil, then cover it and reduce to the lowest heat. Cook it covered for eighteen to twenty minutes without lifting the lid. Do not stir it either, which breaks the grains and makes it gluey.
5. Take it off the heat and let it stand, still covered, for ten minutes. That rest lets the moisture distribute evenly and it is the difference between fluffy and wet. Fry the sliced onion in the oil until soft and just beginning to colour. Add the ground dried chilli and ginger and cook them for a minute only.
6. Take it off quickly once the chilli goes in, since ground chilli burns within a minute and turns acrid. Pour the hot spiced oil over the rice and beans and fold it through.
7. Fold rather than stir hard, since the rice breaks up easily once cooked. It should end up glossy and evenly coloured with no dry patches. Serve it hot with a pepper sauce, and with fried plantain or a stew alongside if you want a fuller plate.

Technique

• Cowpeas take far longer than rice, so they are cooked first.
• The bean cooking liquid is kept and the rice is cooked in it.
• Ghanaian waakye is coloured with sorghum leaves; benga is not.

Substitutions

• Black-eyed peas, which are a variety of cowpea.
• Groundnut oil in place of red palm oil.

Variations

• With smoked fish cooked into the pot.
• Made with more palm oil, for a richer plate.
• Served with a tomato stew rather than plain.

History

A Mossi everyday plate from Burkina’s rice and cowpea farming, the Sahelian counterpart to coastal waakye and atassi.

Frequently asked questions

What is Benga?

Benga is a main from Burkina Faso: rice cooked with beans, dressed in oil and pepper. A Mossi everyday plate from Burkina’s rice and cowpea farming, the Sahelian counterpart to coastal waakye and atassi.

How long does Benga take to make?

Benga takes 20 min plus overnight soaking of preparation and 1 hr 15 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Benga?

Yes, within limits. Black-eyed peas, which are a variety of cowpea. Groundnut oil in place of red palm oil.

What is the most important thing to get right in Benga?

Soak them overnight in plenty of cold water. In warm weather soak them in the fridge, since soaking pulses ferment and sour quickly. Drain and rinse them before cooking. Cowpeas take far longer to cook than rice, which is why they cannot simply go in together at the start.